


second chances

by shrack



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M, Season 4 The Break-Up AU, vague lacrosse references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27824644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrack/pseuds/shrack
Summary: Anonymous prompted: all of the new directions except sam take kurts side in the breakup. sam encourages blaine to reconnect with sebastian and the warblers
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe
Comments: 1
Kudos: 95





	second chances

“How could you?” Tina accuses, bright and early, the day after Blaine comes back from New York. Blaine knows what it’s about, but he’s exhausted and broken and he doesn’t want to do this, not now.

“Tina, please—”

"You two were like soulmates," she barrels on, feet firmly planted on the ground in front of Blaine. "I can't  _ believe _ you'd throw that away for a night out."

She's right. And that's the worst part about all of this—she and everyone else who is mad at him has a point. There is nothing in the world he can say to change their minds, so Blaine just sucks in a long breath and squares his shoulders back.

"I know. And I can't apologize enough—"

Blaine says this as Tina brushes past him, pleading to the back of her head as she goes past. She rounds a corner before he can even finish his thought. The warning bell rings. It's not even first period and Blaine feels like he wants to crawl in a hole and never come out. He shouldn't have come in today.

In between chemistry and right before lunch, three other New Directions loudly and obviously voice their support for Kurt. Artie barely even  _ looks  _ at him as he wheels past, continuing his conversation with Kitty about the whole thing as they blow him by. Sugar makes some bizarre statements that sting, even though Blaine’s pretty sure Sugar forgot his name promptly after Valentine’s Day.

When lunch rolls around, Blaine debates sitting in the choir room. But even that doesn’t feel like a safe haven right now, so he straightens up and heads into the cafeteria despite everything. He feels a lot of eyes on him when he goes to sit at one of the notoriously empty tables, and he casts a quick glance at the table of his Glee friends. Marley looks sad, and somehow that’s enough to make Blaine want to start crying as he sits down and focuses on his food.

His phone is annoyingly empty, and it doesn’t ease anything in him to check it for the millionth time. Kurt’s not going to text him. He blocked Eli the same night, thankfully. He doesn’t know if he’d survive seeing him again. Maybe Blaine could get a text from some long-lost friend, or Cooper, or  _ someone  _ who wouldn’t immediately make him feel like shit for cheating on Kurt. The bell rings to signal the end of lunch before Blaine can even stomach getting any of it down. 

Blaine paws through his locker desperately, that wobbly, about-to-cry feeling making itself known yet again. Blaine  _ saw  _ his chemistry notebook in here this morning, there's no way it _ ran off. _

A quiet, "Blaine," comes from his left and Blaine slams his hands against the bottom ridge of his open locker, fingers gripping there as he takes in a shaky breath.

"Sam, I can't—I can't handle another accusation, please, I just want to make it to chem in one piece," he rushes out, standing up straight and blinking into his locker. At the back, amidst the loose papers and incorrect notebooks, is a picture of himself and Kurt, smiling and happy. Taunting him with everything he ruined.

"Dude, no," Sam says softly, quieter than Blaine's ever heard him. "I'm here for you, man."

The words almost shake the sob caught in the back of his throat loose. Blaine sighs and pushes himself to stand up straight.

"I deserve this. I'm a terrible person."

Sam gestures to Blaine's locker, and Blaine steps back to let Sam go through his things. "You're not. You felt like Kurt was leaving you behind and you acted out."

Sam pulls the notebook out and offers it to Blaine, like an olive branch. He continues, "I'm not really sure why everyone's all 'holier-than-you' when most of them have cheated on their partner with someone  _ else  _ in Glee club."

Blaine turns the notebook over in his hands, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "It's 'holier-than-thou'."

"Same thing." Sam slaps Blaine's locker closed and drapes an arm around his shoulders, steering him towards his chemistry class. "Look, I've got your back, okay? Blonde Chameleon's gotta look out for Nightbird no matter what."

Blaine knows that one person against the entire New Directions, including Finn, isn't going to help him that much. But having one person at all was way more than Blaine ever expected. He forces his best smile when he says, "Thank you."

Fifteen Sams couldn’t help him through rehearsal if they tried. First, he walks in early and is faced with Finn, who immediately asks him why he hurt Kurt. Then, everyone comes in before Blaine can even  _ try  _ to explain himself, even though he got the hint that any explanations he could give won’t make anything better. Finally, to top everything off, everyone’s excited to see Finn back in the classroom, and Shue says that they’re, “family, and you’re always welcome here”. Blaine has never felt like that was the further from the truth. Not when Tina tosses a look at him over her shoulder, nor when nobody asks his opinion on the Fall musical, and especially when he leaves first.

Sam jogs to catch up to him in the hallway. “That was brutal. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, Sam,” Blaine says as he adjusts the strap on his bag, “I just want to go home.”

“Let me treat you to coffee,” Sam tries, and Blaine knows he’s not going to give up without a fight, so he agrees.

When they arrive, Sam leads them to the opposite side of the Lima Bean, away from where Kurt and Blaine would spend their afternoons, and Blaine is silently grateful. The two of them take a spot by the window, and Sam fills the silence by talking about the classes he’s been struggling with the most. Blaine is grateful for the distraction, but his mind can’t help but wander to what happened with Finn in the choir room. Finn has every right to be upset with him about hurting Kurt. He wished they had more time to talk about it—maybe Finn knew more about where he and Kurt stood than he does. Well, it doesn’t take a genius to know that they’re over with.

He’s shaken out of his head by the door of the Lima Bean closing, and he straightens in his seat when he watches Sebastian and a guy he’s never met before walk in and approach the counter to order. It’s rare for Blaine to not recognize a student at Dalton, but he supposes people moving to Ohio randomly should be more expected than it really should be. The guy is the same height as Sebastian. Sebastian looks incredibly bored with whatever the guy’s talking about, back straight and no ounce of emotion clear on his face from where Blaine’s watching him. Sam’s eyes clock that he’s not paying attention, and Sam turns in his seat to look at the Warblers.

“It’s insane that they come all the way here,” Sam mutters.

Blaine shrugs, “Sebastian insisted it’s the only coffee in the area that’s tolerable.”

Sam hums quietly and turns back around. The two at the counter walk off to the side to wait for their drinks, and Sebastian catches Blaine’s eye. Blaine doesn’t have it in him to pretend he hasn’t been looking, so Blaine just raises a hand in greeting, to which Sebastian smirks and tips his head towards Blaine. The guy starts talking again, and Sebastian makes a show of rolling his eyes before turning to listen. Blaine finds it amusing, and when he turns back to grab his coffee, Sam is watching him closely.

“Well well. Blaine Anderson,” the new guy says as he swaggers up to the table, and Sam turns his entire body towards the man. “I’ve heard quite a lot about you.”

Blaine glances past the guy to Sebastian, who almost looks apologetic when he smiles back.

“We’re really not in the mood for this right now, boys,” Sam pipes up. This guy seems like the type who likes to talk down to people, and as soon as Sam stands up out of his chair to be eye-to-eye with him, he takes a step back.

“I just wanted to introduce myself to the competition. My name’s Hunter Clarington,” Hunter states, a smug calm in his voice that sends a bad feeling down Blaine’s spine, “I’m the new Captain of the Warblers.”

“Co-captain,” Sebastian scoffs, and that at least makes Blaine’s hackles lower just a bit. “And we were just leaving.”

Sam sticks his hand out for a terse handshake with Hunter. Sebastian’s eyes flick over Blaine quickly, and for a brief second, Blaine is aware of how he hasn’t slept much since he’s come back, how he’s been on the verge of crying all day, and how that must’ve taken a toll on his appearance. Leave it to Sebastian to get under his collar like that. And just like that, that lump is back in his throat, and Blaine turns away to busy himself with his coffee cup.

He’d be lying to himself if he said he didn’t miss the Warblers, Sebastian included. They were his backbone for two years, and he ditched them without saying as much as a goodbye. He could do without this Hunter character, but something tells him that Hunter won’t last very long. And if it wasn’t clear now, it’s perfectly crystal now: he’s not close with anyone at McKinley except for Sam. Blaine should never have moved. He should be singing with people who actually understand him, and don’t just accuse him of singing Katy Perry hits and running back to his old friends every single day.

As they’re heading back to their cars, Sam places a hand on Blaine’s shoulder to make him turn around. “I think you should get in touch with the Warblers again. Not—don’t transfer. I promise, the New Directions need you. But you could use some friends.”

“Do they need me? Because it seems like they don’t want anything to do with me,” Blaine snaps, the words getting caught in his throat a little.

“You just need to give them some time. You need to give  _ Kurt  _ some time,” Sam says, grabbing both of Blaine’s shoulders and leaning down to be face-to-face with him. “Things will get better. And it might be better with some folks on your side.”

It takes a week for Blaine to work up the nerve to go visit Dalton. It also takes three promises to Sam that he won’t transfer back, multiple apologies to the other New Directions to get them vaguely closer to his side, and one mid-day meltdown in the bathroom mirror. He pulls into a spot in the Dalton parking lot, parks his car, and stares up at the building to marvel at the sense of ease it brings him, even now. 

There should be something terrifying about the huge gothic architecture, looming over him as he walks up and inside, but there isn’t. His brain nags at him that he should have never left as he listens to the familiar sound of dress shoes shuffling across a marble floor, the soft whispers of errant students hurrying to their extracurriculars. Blaine rolls his shoulders back as he heads down the hallway he’s walked and danced down more times than he could count in just two years. The soft singing from inside the choir room makes an excited smile bubble up without him realizing it, and when he rounds the corner to prop himself against the doorframe, the Warblers are all grouped up in their respective parts, rehearsing something Blaine can vaguely make out as “Dark Side” by Kelly Clarkson.

Sebastian notices him first, because of course he does. It reminds Blaine of a year prior, when Nick was pouring his heart out to “Uptown Girl”, but this time Sebastian is swiftly joined by Hunter.

Sebastian mouths  _ “Sorry,”  _ when Hunter starts talking. “Is this their sad excuse for spying now?”

“No,” Blaine sighs, offering his most polite smile. “This was for me. I...let a lot of the guys in here down by disappearing and I want to try and fix that.”

“By coming back?” Hunter asks, chin jutted up ever so slightly, but when Blaine glances at Sebastian, the other boy seems to already know the answer.

“Also no. This is just a guy trying to see some of his friends.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Nick bouncing excitedly, clearly waiting to say hello. Blaine takes it upon himself to turn and head towards him, the two of them hugging quickly and laughing.

Nick’s grinning when he pulls back. “We missed you, dude.”

Blaine laughs, “I’m not coming back.”

“No but this time it’s like,” Nick waves a hand vaguely, “it feels like you. Does that make sense? No strings attached.”

Blaine raises his eyebrows in amusement. “I’ve been here for all of three seconds.”

Jeff, who has apparently snuck up on them, claps a hand on Blaine’s shoulder and makes him jump slightly. “Hunter hasn’t bitten your head off. I count that as a win.”

There are a few more quick greetings he does, to David and Thad and Trent who vaguely looks like he wants to cry when the two of them hug. There is something different this time about their reunion, and despite it being the only difference, he doesn’t want to admit that it might just be because he’s not with Kurt anymore. He also doesn’t  _ technically _ have the New Directions hanging onto his every move, which was an unexpected side effect of hurting Kurt so badly.

Blaine sits on the couch in front of the group of tenors, letting himself get swept up in their backing vocals and  _ not  _ letting his mind drift to his last few days with Kurt in this room. Stealing away into rooms to share quick, shy kisses, or dancing around singing their duet during the holiday, or even running into this room holding hands that very first day. Blaine’s knee is bouncing nervously before he can train himself to stop, and he smooths his hands over his thighs to calm himself down. Someone squats down next to him by the arm of the couch, and he’s not surprised when he turns and Sebastian’s smirking at him.

“We’re going to run the number,” Sebastian murmurs, “feel free to join in if you want.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t.”

Sebastian, on his way to stand again, places a hand on Blaine’s shoulder, dragging it down just slightly to smooth over his shoulder blade. His hand’s warm through the thin material of his button down, and Blaine has to bite the inside of his cheek to keep the smile from creeping onto his face again. There’s just something about Sebastian that’s infectious—the Kurt that lives in his head offers a half-assed joke about STDs that’s off-base and simply not true.

Blaine watches with fond nostalgia as they get into a typical formation, Sebastian at the front of them as he leads them in the song. The performance is flawless, the same as they ever are. Hunter doesn’t join in, opting for watching and presumably taking notes on things they could improve, but all the boys seem to be having an absolute blast while they sing. Blaine misses the  _ ease  _ that comes with performing with the Warblers. Not that there was anything easy about it. If anything, performing with the New Directions is laughably easy, since most performances are impromptu and decisions were made at a speed that would make Pavarotti roll over in his tiny little grave.

He just...fit. And he itches to fit once again, even if it is as their friend who cheers them on in the crowd when he’s not supposed to. That’s all Blaine ever wanted, everywhere he went. The Warblers seem to be offering that to him.

Blaine can’t bring himself to leave when everyone else does, body glued to the couch despite how much he knows he should leave. Thad hugs him again before they leave, and Blaine makes a promise to everyone that he’ll start texting in their group chat again. Hunter and Sebastian are bickering about something that he can’t quite hear over by the desk. They’re hunched over the desk looking at something, Hunter’s finger jabbing at whatever it is while Sebastian stands up straight and completely ignores whatever’s being said by looking over at Blaine and raising his eyebrows.

Blaine bites his lip and shrugs his shoulders back at Sebastian. He never actually accepted Sebastian’s apology, come to think of it. In his moments of weakness, usually late at night when he can’t sleep, he’s thought about texting Sebastian to give him forgiveness. It’s apparent that Sebastian doesn’t need it one bit—he looks good. Well, he’s always looked good, but he’s commanding without being overtly rude (as far as he can tell), and the Warblers really seem to have warmed up to him as their leader.

Sebastian turns back to Hunter, eyeing him with the faintest hint of a smirk. It clearly pisses Hunter off enough for the man to grab his things and head out the door, not even giving Blaine a second glance as he does. Good, Blaine doesn’t like him very much anyway.

“How are you holding up?” Sebastian asks, and the bluntness of the question catches Blaine by surprise.

“What?”

“How,” Sebastian drawls, sauntering up to Blaine and sitting on the table across from him, their legs bumping a little bit when he does, “are you holding up?”

Blaine leans back on the couch and sighs. “You heard.”

“It’s hard not to. The New Directions have an annoyingly loud Internet presence.”

Blaine sighs and tips his head back on the couch. He can tell Sebastian’s watching him with a smirk, and something about that rubs him the wrong way (not that literally anything sets him off these days). “What’s that got to do with you?”

Sebastian breathes a laugh and leans forward to prop his elbows on his knees. “Nothing. A couple of them seem to think I’m the mystery man, though.”

Even thinking about that night makes bile creep up Blaine’s throat, and he swallows. “It doesn’t matter who it was.”

“I’m a little offended it wasn’t,” Sebastian replies, and sure enough when Blaine lifts his head to give him a look, that smirk hasn’t wavered one bit.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this.” Blaine’s voice sounds pathetic to his own ears. God, if he could stop  _ crying  _ for two seconds, that would be great.

Sebastian watches him thoughtfully, and the seriousness of it should make Blaine uncomfortable, but it doesn’t. “Don’t be. In fact, if it makes things easier for you, you can drag me further into it.”

“Sebastian—”

Sebastian smiles, something sad at its edges. “I’m serious. I can handle a few rude texts. I don’t have to see them every day.”

“No,” Blaine says firmly, fully sitting up and watching as Sebastian leans back on his arms in response. “I’m not going to do that to you. Thank you though.”

Sebastian’s eyes rake over Blaine again before he tips his head towards the door. “I’ve got a few minutes before lacrosse. Walk you out?”

It’s a little harder to convince himself that Sebastian has pure intentions this time around. Clearly he  _ has  _ turned over a new leaf at school; on the way to the parking lot the two of them talk idly about plans for their senior year and colleges that they’re shaping up to apply to. Sebastian’s got his heart set on Columbia, which Blaine could absolutely see him thriving at.

“NYADA, probably,” Blaine says as Sebastian holds open the door for him.

“Probably?”

Blaine sighs, pulling his jacket tighter to his body, and catches Sebastian watching him out of the corner of his eye. He hasn’t actually admitted this to himself, let alone anyone else, let alone  _ Kurt _ , but he surprises himself when he says, “I want to be a teacher. I’ve been looking at the NYU program, actually.”

Sebastian hums quietly. “You’d make a very good teacher.”

“You think so?” Blaine asks hopefully, turning towards Sebastian as they hop down the curb and head towards his car.

“Oh yeah. You have incredible patience for people who don’t deserve a lick of your time.”

Blaine breathes a laugh down at the ground. He almost regrets finding his car in the lot, standing in front of the door and drumming his fingers on the handle for a moment. Sebastian hasn’t budged from behind him, and Blaine sucks in a breath before spinning around to meet his eye.

“I never accepted your apology.”

Sebastian leans back a little bit when he laughs. “By all means.”

“I forgive you,” Blaine says quickly, “And thank you, for everything.”

Blaine folds his arms over his chest and shivers despite his best judgement, and the amused look on Sebastian’s face warns him a split second before Sebastian’s taking the scarf off from around his neck and looping it around Blaine’s. It’s a deep green that reminds Blaine of Sebastian’s eyes, which is a thought that Blaine wants to slap right out of his brain as soon as it crosses it.

Sebastian scrunches his nose when he says, “Keep it.”

Blaine watches Sebastian turn on his heel and walk towards the fields with a small smile on his face.

When he gets home, there are a few texts waiting for him. It sends his heart right into his throat and panic down his spine, but it eases once he sees who they're from.

**Sebastian:** _ hope you didnt change your number _

There’s also a notification that Sebastian’s added him to a group chat with his old Warbler friends, and six messages of varying degrees of excitement from the members of the group. Blaine smiles at the screen and sends a few emojis in return before clicking back to Sebastian’s conversation.

**Blaine:** _ Wouldn’t it be messed up if I did? And you added some stranger to a group chat? _

**Sebastian:** _fucked up for sure_

Impulse carries him to exit the conversation and click open the mostly one-sided one with Kurt. Even before the break up, the conversation was mostly on Blaine’s end, but it still stings to see not even a single acknowledgement that he’s read any of them. His thumbs hover for a few moments over the keyboard, before he sighs and sets his phone down.

Part of him doesn’t want Kurt to answer. It’s selfish to think that maybe this is exactly what he needs. Kurt’s been dragging him down since he left for New York; he feels like a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of Kurt’s boot, just getting shuffled along with Kurt’s big ride throughout the New York fashion scene. And every single time Blaine wanted to talk about things, maybe sort them out, Kurt would be too busy to even let him get a word in edgewise. It’s like he woke up in New York and decided that Blaine was just a guy he was obligated to call sometimes. A boring old burden back at a home he doesn’t want to associate with anymore.

So yeah, maybe Blaine needed this. He can focus on graduating top of his class (which is embarrassingly easy, the curriculum at McKinley pales in comparison to Dalton) and being a good senior class president. Moving into an apartment in New York and finding success at NYU.  _ Those  _ are his dreams. He just has to detach them from Kurt, and the thought of that terrifies him more than it should.

It’s just...he’s been so inexorably tied to Kurt since he transferred. Kurt’s boyfriend who just joined the New Directions— _ that _ was him for his entire junior year, no matter how much everyone denied it. And as soon as Kurt was hurt, it’s not surprising they all jumped right back to his side. Blaine sucks in a shaky breath and flops back on his bed. By his head, his phone buzzes.

**Sebastian:** _ what was that cary grant movie you suggested to me _

**Sebastian:** _ seriously its driving me fucking crazy i know it wasnt charade but thats the only one i can think of _

The speed that Sebastian’s texts rip him out of his spiral should be moderately alarming. Everything about Sebastian should be alarming, if he thinks about it.

Somehow a year ago doesn’t hurt as much as he hurts now. Maybe it’s because he knows where Sebastian stands with him.

**Blaine:** _ The Philadelphia Story, probably. _

**Sebastian:** _ PHILADELPHIA STORY _

Blaine chuckles softly at his screen before setting it aside to start on his homework.

During rehearsal the next day, Blaine’s phone starts vibrating aggressively in his pocket, and it sends cold worry down his spine. Shuester’s going off on some tangent that only a third of the room really cares about, anyway, so he pulls his phone out. Apparently the Warblers’ rehearsal is going about the same way.

**Nick:** _ why does he have to keep bringing the cat _

**Sebastian:** _ im going to lock it in the trophy case _

**Jeff:** _ NO!!!!!! _

**Thad:** _ Pay attention pls _

Blaine feels Sam lean on him to look over his shoulder, which he should really work on being more subtle about. 

“I didn’t know they all had names,” Sam whispers, and Blaine rolls his eyes.

**Blaine:** _ Is the cat cute at least? _

**Sebastian:** _ it looks like a tiny goblin _

**Jeff:** _ his name is mr puss and he is perfect _

A soft laugh slips out, and he’s glad nobody but Sam’s paying attention to him. Sam, still halfway leaned over, mutters, “I’m glad you have them.”

Blaine turns to smile at him when he says, “Me, too.”

He then gets a text from Sebastian, separately once again. Blaine’s starting to think that this is a trend of his.

**Sebastian:** _ we should grab coffee _

**Sebastian:** _ for old times sake _

Blaine glances in Sam’s direction to make sure he’s no longer staring his phone down.

**Blaine:** _ Idk if the Lima Bean’s such a good idea… _

The thought of any of the New Directions catching him with Sebastian at the Lima Bean is enough to make his knee bounce nervously. It’s not even like they’d be catching him doing something  _ wrong _ , but then news that he’s talking to Sebastian would get to Kurt, and then Kurt would be even angrier, and make assumptions about what happened, and it would go on and on and on.

**Sebastian:** _ come to dalton then ;) _

Blaine worries his teeth over his bottom lip, shoots back an affirmative, and slips his phone back into his pocket as the band starts playing the opening notes of whatever song someone prepped behind everyone’s backs. On instinct, he glances over at the clock, despite knowing good and well that he’s got quite a while before it lets out.

Dalton feels more like a safe haven than his own home, which is worrisome as well. He and his parents never talked too much—not about emotions, really. Especially not after he came out. It was always very surface-level conversation, checking in on how school is going, how his friends are, if his work is done; most of the leg work coming from his mom and not his dad, not since he had to admit he wasn’t all that interested in learning car maintenance. Since the break-up, they have reverted to handling him with oven mitts. It reminds him of when he first transferred to Dalton, fresh off the back of the Sadie Hawkins at his old school. When he was  _ actually _ hurt, yet they talked to him like he was a baby again, too nervous to even say anything that they could remotely think of as stressful. 

He doesn’t talk to anyone. Not really. Maybe Blaine should go to therapy. But Sebastian’s given him this  _ out _ that nobody’s really offered him in quite a long time. By extension, the Warblers have too. Blaine walks down the familiar hallways of Dalton and there’s excited recognition on some peoples’ faces, not silent sympathy or not-so-subtle rage. He holds his head a little higher when he walks through Dalton, and it feels so, so  _ good  _ to have a place like this back on his side.

When he gets to the cafe, Sebastian’s sitting at one of the corner tables, a mess of papers and a textbook strewn in front of him. He plays with the coffee cup by wobbling it on the table, scribbling his notes busily. Blaine almost doesn’t want to interrupt him, so he goes to the counter to order his usual. Once he gets his drink he sinks into the chair across from Sebastian, who smirks at him and starts putting his books away.

“I was never any good at calculus,” Blaine says once Sebastian’s tucked his things away.

Sebastian leans back on his chair, tilting his head to the side and scanning Blaine’s face. “You look better.”

Blaine blinks at him, so Sebastian laughs and continues, “I don’t particularly like small talk, Anderson.”

Blaine breathes a sigh and nods, staring at the lid of his cup. “I feel better. I feel like I can focus now, you know?”

Sebastian hums. “That  _ rigorous _ skin sloughing routine kept you up at night?”

Blaine looks up in surprise at Sebastian, who shrugs. He guesses Sebastian remembers a lot of the stupid things Kurt said about their relationship. Not sure what that says about the relationship as a whole,  _ or _ the fact that Sebastian actually remembers things about it, but whatever.

“I’m serious. I mean, all the New Directions are slowly warming back up to me, I think. I started talking with you guys again. It’s nice,” Blaine admits, taking a sip of his coffee to ground himself before adding, “Feels like a fresh start. I just need to get through and get out of here.”

“NYU’s gonna be frothing at the mouth to let you in.”

Sebastian smiles, and it makes his eyes squint just a little at the edges, and Blaine’s heart gives a useless thump against his ribs. Blaine echoes the smile back at him. “Application’s sent. I just have to wait.”

“They’d be lucky to have you. The world needs more showstoppers.”

Blaine’s cheeks burn and he takes another sip from his coffee to busy himself, trying but failing to avoid Sebastian’s eye as he does so. Sebastian’s silently very amused, and that doesn’t help him feel any less flustered in the moment.

Sebastian pulls his sleeve up to check his watch. “I know I invited you here, but I do have lacrosse to get to.”

“I would expect nothing less.”

The other boy’s smile morphs into that little smug smirk he gets sometimes. “Have you ever even been to a Dalton lacrosse practice?”

“I barely even knew we had a team while I was here,” Blaine laughs, and Sebastian stands to gather his things.

He doesn’t ask Blaine to follow, Blaine just does regardless. The two of them talk idly about some of the legacy songs the Warblers have in their repertoire that feel completely ridiculous (among them “The Lady is a Tramp”, which they agree is a terrible arrangement that no one should ever pull out for any reason, at all, ever). 

They part ways when they get to the locker room, and it’s no surprise that Blaine’s the only one sitting in the bleachers. It’s probably not often that people willingly watch practices—Blaine’s curious to know how popular the games themselves are. The practice involves a lot of yelling, whistles, and repetitive running drills that Blaine doesn’t understand one bit. He figures out which one Sebastian is pretty quickly; he’s among the taller of the group, but there’s a specific way he moves that Blaine recognizes right off the bat.

Some of the players cast glances his way during the practice, but they quickly get yanked back into the practice by either the coach or Sebastian himself, usually by whacking them with his stick to get them to focus. It’s a real boys club that Blaine should feel embarrassed by, but weirdly, he doesn’t. Although he’s not really familiar with the sports side of Dalton, he never felt threatened here. Sure, it’s just another high school, with hierarchies and cliques, but there’s just something different about it. It’s a miracle it exists at all.

Once practice finishes, Sebastian and the rest of the team disappear into the locker room for a few minutes. Blaine can hear the rush of guys talking as they leave, and he fidgets with his phone until he hears footsteps on the bleachers and someone sit next to him. He looks over and tries to keep himself from staring, but he’s never seen Sebastian out of his uniform and something about it is magnetic. His hair’s fallen to droop over his forehead, he’s wearing a tank top that reveals the freckles dusted over his strong shoulders (which Blaine always had an interest in, he’s only human after all), and shorts that ride up to his thigh when he sits.

Sebastian’s toothy smile greets him when his eyes rake back up. “Like what you see?”

“I—well,” Blaine stammers, tearing his gaze away to stuff his phone into his pocket. He can hear Sebastian’s quiet, amused laugh. “I can’t say I know any more about lacrosse than when the practice first started.”

“Sometimes even I’m not sure of the rules,” Sebastian laughs.

Blaine doesn’t have to ask Sebastian if he can stay for a bit, because Sebastian hops up and gestures towards the stairs wordlessly. They lapse into a comfortable silence as they head back to the dorms. There’s no need to try and find words to say, and maybe that’s the nicest thing of it all—with Kurt, he always feels like he has to say something. Kurt always expected the effort to come from Blaine, with sweet texts and checking in on him and mundane updates that he’d rather talk about on the phone but Kurt could never find the time. Would it have killed Kurt to initiate a conversation? 

Blaine knows that this break up is just an extension of what happened with Kurt and Chandler, and maybe extends further, back to himself and Sebastian’s relationship last year. Blaine watches Sebastian’s back as he walks just a half-step ahead and smiles to himself. Sebastian expects nothing of him, except maybe that he’s still trailing behind. If Blaine wants to talk, he will. There’s no pressure.

Once they reach his room, Sebastian’s hand pauses on the doorknob. Blaine’s about to ask if he’s okay, but Sebastian turns around on his heel, cups the back of his neck, and crushes their lips together. Blaine’s eyes widen before he closes them, leaning up on his toes to kiss him back. It’s a forceful kiss but it softens quickly into something much more chaste, Blaine twisting his hand in Sebastian’s shirt to keep him close. He figures that this should be more surprising—but in some ways, it feels inevitable.

Blaine pulls back and rests back down on the ground, and Sebastian breathes out a laugh. For the first time, he seems visibly nervous, and the thought that  _ he  _ did that, that he’s enough to make Sebastian Smythe of all people nervous, makes him giddy.

“Probably should’ve asked,” Sebastian admits, opening the door without turning around. “Sorry.”

Blaine bites his bottom lip with a smile. “Are you?”

“No,” Sebastian laughs, stepping aside and gesturing for Blaine to enter the room. “Should I be?”

Sebastian Smythe should be alarming, but he feels calmer than he has in months when he walks into the other boy’s room.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr is shrack! say hi!


End file.
